Dana, 13, USA
Since your face isn't really shown in the movie do you get recognised much on the street? And if you do lots of people come up to you and call you Gollum?

Andy Serkis: Yeah it's quite surprising, I didn't think I'd get recognised as much as I do but because the animators designed the facial structure of how Gollum actually looks on screen to be very close to mine and it moves in the same way that my face does and of course all the coverage, all the press coverage, that I've had about the making of Gollum since the film's release I do actually get recognised quite a lot on the street both at home in the UK and here as well, in fact more in the USA than at home.

Natseko, 15, Canada
Because of your fame do people often come up to you and ask you to do impressions of Gollum?

Andy Serkis: A lot of people have asked me to do answer phone messages for them.

Sarah, 13
Was it weird to hear yourself in the movie but with a different body?

Andy Serkis: I don't think it was strange because I'd done all the physical work in fact because most of the movement, nearly all the movement, that I've done is translated into the CG character it's not weird. And even people like my wife and people who know me, my friends, they all see a lot of me up their on the screen - it's quite weird really.

Sylvie, 13, Lower Kingswood
How long compared to a normal scene does it take to make a scene as Gollum for you as an actor?

Andy Serkis: That's a good question because we shoot everything as you would in normal film and then it goes through a whole lot of processes, I have to re-shoot everything again in a motion capture studio and then I have to work with the animators and then re-voice everything. So all in all the process can take, with the animating process as well, some scenes have taken two and a half years to make.

Jacqueline, 13, St. Martin
What was the hardest or most complicated scene for you to shoot?

Andy Serkis: I think the very first time when Gollum has just crawled down a cliff and jumps on top of Frodo and Sam. We had to repeat that - well we shot that scene many, many times, it was very physically exhausting for all three of us.

Josh, 13, Malden
Is it true that you actually had to dive into the freezing cold water in the scene by the waterfall yourself and if so what was that like?

Andy Serkis: Yeah it's absolutely true, they spent the whole morning before we actually shot that scene - the whole mountain was under cover of snow and the crew had to defrost this entire area using high pressure hoses and wind machines and all sorts of things and then - but the water was still sub-zero - and so when I went into the water it was absolutely freezing, I could hardly move, my whole body froze up and we had to repeat the scene a few times. But it is true we did do that.

Simon, Stockton-on-Tees
How do you feel about the comparison between Gollum and Dobby from Harry Potter?

Andy Serkis: I can understand why people draw comparisons to them but really they're such different characters and they're such different films that it seems that they both should exist in their own right really and I think we always tend to try and compare things as being the battle between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter as being played off really and I just think they're both great films in their own rights.

Tim, 13, Sandhurst
Who do you think would win in a fight between Gollum and Dobby?

Sarah, 14, Stockton
How long did you stay in New Zealand and what did you do in your spare time there?

Andy Serkis: Well the original photography of all three films took a year and a half and I was down there for most of that but I've spent a lot of time since in what's called post production - doing all the motion capture work, which if you're not sure what that means it's going back and repeating every single scene with me wearing the suit with the dots on and controlling the computer generated image. So I've been back a lot of last year and I'm just about to go down again for a few months of this year to finish the third film. But in my time off I love to go - there's great walking and climbing to do and I go horse riding and canoeing, the scenery's absolutely stunning and so much varied scenery, it's just a wonderful place to explore.

Shannon, 13, Birmingham
Which of the actors in the Lord of the Rings did you hang out most with?

Andy Serkis: I hung out mostly with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin because our story line - a lot of the actors got separated by their story lines. So, for instance, Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies of course are tied together. We were all scattered to the four winds over the North and South islands of New Zealand so you tended to get close to who you were working with on a day to day level. So mine was Elijah and Sean.

Louise, 13, Liverpool
What is Orlando Bloom like in real life because I'm a huge fan?

Andy Serkis: He's a really cool guy, he's a really lovely man and he's just - he's really enjoyed playing Legolas and he's going onto to play in Pirates of the Caribbean. But he's a lovely guy, I really enjoyed spending time with him.

Elaine, 13, Oxfordshire
How were you chosen specifically over anyone else to play the part of Gollum?

Andy Serkis: I suppose originally I was chosen more for the voice, when I first auditioned it was originally - it was described to me as a voice role and then the physical side of that came slightly later. Although I could only do the voice if I found the physical position. But then I started reading the books and looked at the way that Tolkein described Gollum's movement and so I drew a lot of that - drew a lot of my inspiration from that and also the artists who worked on the film their sketches gave me a lot of inspiration as well.

Matthew, 13, Essex
I've heard the story about the voice coming from your cat coughing up fur balls, why did you choose this approach for Gollum's voice?

Andy Serkis: I wanted to find somewhere where - because Gollum is called Gollum because of the way he sounds, the voice that emanates from his throat, and I wanted to find somewhere where he carried his pain the most and I thought that his throat would be the right area. And I was looking for an involuntary action coming from the whole body, like a convulsion, and I was looking at my cat and I saw that when they got fur balls in the back of their throats their whole bodies convulsed and then they made this kind of coughing sound and that seemed to be right for the way that Gollum says - when he actually says Gollum, Gollum, it absolutely fitted it perfectly.

Shannon, 13, Birmingham
Did you try out lots of different voices for Gollum before choosing the final one?

Andy Serkis: When I went in for the audition I had worked on a particular version of the voice but when I got out to New Zealand it became apparent that the relationship between Smeagol and Gollum, in the script, was going to be much more defined. So I had to work much, much more closely on separating the voices between Smeagol and Gollum. So that took quite a long time to arrive at the final voice because we didn't actually lay the final voice tracks down until two and a half years after we started.

Tuva, 13, Norway
Have you ever used the Gollum voice to scare anyone or to intimidate anyone?

Andy Serkis: To scare anyone? Only my children when they don't go to bed on time.

Philip
How have your children responded to you getting the part of Gollum in Lord of the Rings and have they seen the film?

Andy Serkis: They're very young actually, in fact Sonny, my youngest child, he's two and a half now, he wasn't even born when I started shooting. But Ruby, my daughter, who's four, four and a half, she came - they all came down to New Zealand and she watched me on set. They've not actually seen the full film but they've seen parts of it and they know Gollum and they love watching - there have been a lot of hoardings on buses with Gollum on the side and they keep pointing at the buses going oh look there's daddy so they're quite into it.

Myra, 14, London
Did doing the voice cause you any throat pain or any strain?

Andy Serkis: It did at first but I used to drink a lot of this juice which we all made up called Gollum Juice, which was made of honey, lemon and ginger. So we used to make up big jugs of it with warm water and I used to drink that on set everyday, lots of it everyday.

Philip
How do you see your character developing in the Return of the King?

Andy Serkis: I don't want to give too much away actually but obviously Gollum's fate is very much bound up with that of Frodo and Sam and the Ring of course. And so you get to see them continue on their journey and it reaches an enormous climax in Mordor.

Este and Hilary, 12 and 10, USA
Do you think people should feel sorry for Gollum or think of him as a monster?

Andy Serkis: I think they should feel both. I think that Gollum is really the character who is a very human character and he's very flawed, like most humans are and has good and bad sides. As Gandalf says to Frodo in the first film and in the book - be careful who you deal out judgement to. And he describes Gollum as having a chink of light in his soul that is kind of redeemable or saveable. And so I've always approached the role of Gollum as a character who can be - because he needs to be pitied by Frodo and Frodo needs to make a connection with him because Frodo is going to be corrupted by the Ring as well. So Gollum, for me, is a character who should be pitied and also hated.

Debbie, 13, Cambridgeshire
How did you go about playing a character with two such distinct personalities?

Andy Serkis: Basically I wanted to find a way of making the Ring speak to me really because it's such a powerful symbol for the whole film and is a symbol of enormous power. I wanted to make it more personal to me and so I tried to find a metaphor for the Ring, if you like, a comparison for the Ring and for me I thought of it as addiction in the sense that the Ring could have a real hold over this character, much like any sort of drug addiction or alcohol addiction could have over a human being. Tolkein writes Gollum as speaking to himself but we decided to make that into much more of a two sides of his personality and so that's bound up really with the psychological conditions of addiction.

Grace, 16, Evesham
What was Peter Jackson like to work for and work with as a director?

Andy Serkis: He's an amazing man, he's a titanic man in all senses of the word. He's a great leader but he also is great fun and just brilliant working with the actors - he knows how to get the best drama out of a scene but also technically he's wonderful in his vision with the shots is just extraordinary and his storytelling is fantastic. Apart from anything else he's just great fun on set, he's always playing practical jokes and he always keeps it light, it never gets too serious with Peter. So he's a good all rounder.

Sally, 14, Bournemouth
What was the funniest thing that happened while you were filming Lord of the Rings?

Andy Serkis: The funniest thing that happened? I think in one scene I was shooting with Elijah and Sean Astin it's when Gollum's trying to stop them from going through the black gates and I had to dive on top of their backs and pull them backwards and right in the middle of this take I jumped on top of Sean Astin's back and I pulled him back and his whole wig and practically his head came off because I pulled him backwards. And it was the first time ever a wig had come off in a scene and it was a real shock but everybody was in stitches.

Lindsey, 14, Bangor
What would you say the ultimate high point was when working on the movie?

Andy Serkis: There have been so many high points it would be really, really difficult to pick one out. I suppose I really enjoyed working on that central schizophrenic scene, that was one of the scenes I enjoyed working on most with the writer, Fran Walsh, who's Peter Jackson's partner, she actually spent a lot of time working on Gollum and she directed that scene and it was a really great scene to work on so I think that was the high point for me.

Oliver, 14, Hutton
Did you feel intimidated working with such a high profile cast?

Andy Serkis: No not really. Once you get on set you just get on as mates and you get on with the job and there's no real kind of rank or anything like that, you're just all making a story together. In actual fact, as I was saying earlier about the story lines, I never actually acted with Ian McKellen or Christopher Lee and so many of us were, because of our story lines, didn't act with each other. So we just all got together afterwards and had a drink in the evening.

Hannah, 16, Sutton
I noticed that loads of the actors on Lord of the Rings had to have prosthetics. Are you particularly glad you didn't have to go through that?

Andy Serkis: Well funnily enough in the third film - I'll let you into a bit of a secret - I did have to go through that but I'm not going to say anymore.

Jessie, 14, USA
Will you, once all three films have gone, do you feel you're going to miss Gollum in a sense?

Andy Serkis: Oh most definitely, I mean he's been such a part of my life for, it'll be, four years all in all, over fours years, until we've done the final extended DVD on the Return of the King, which will be about this time next year, really he's been such a huge part of my life that yes it'll be very strange. But also it will be nice to have it as a great memory and move on to other characters.

Sarah, 12, Woking
What was it like working with the American actors as regards to them getting more Anglicised, becoming more English, because it's a very English book - did you have any worries about that?

Andy Serkis: No not really because they're so suited to the parts. I mean I can't think of anyone else to play particularly Frodo or Sam - they were just so in character that it didn't make any difference at all. So they worked really hard on their accents and I think their accents are really good, so I didn't think about that.

Sam, 12, Cramwell
Did you feel like an intruder on the relationship between Sam and Frodo?

Andy Serkis: Absolutely. They'd been filming for about three months before I arrived in New Zealand so the four hobbits were very closely bonded as friends but particularly Sean Astin and Elijah Wood, Sam and Frodo, they were particularly bonded. And also because they were acting obviously in costumes and make up and everything and they were having to act with this very strange man dressed in a white suit who appeared one day on set and started to try and break up their relationship, their on screen relationship. It's very odd how your off screen life kind of reflects your on screen life and I did tend to spend a lot of time isolated and on my own as Gollum and I did go off and do a lot of climbing and walking on my own but really that was part of the character and it nearly always happens when you play a role. And so the relationship between Sean and Elijah came from the relationship with Sam and Frodo. So I did feel like I was gradually encroaching on their relationship yeah.

Alex, 12, Fulham
How much preparation did you actually do for the role in terms of going away in isolation and what was that like?

Andy Serkis: I spent a lot of time on my own working out the physical vocabulary for how Gollum moved. As I say I drew on a lot of Tolkein's descriptions of how he moves but also the conceptual artist sketches. But also what I used to do was I'd just go off jogging in the morning when we were filming. I remember when I was first started with filming in Ruapehu, which is a volcano in the centre of the North Island, and I'd go off and just get into character by crawling around these rocky streams and just on my own for hours and hours, just trying to sense that isolation really. So it was really important to do that, to be able to take that into the scenes.

Claire, 16, Finland
When all the movies are out - all three of them - which one do you think will be your favourite?

Andy Serkis: Oh I don't know, it's a really difficult question that because I love all three for their different themes. I think the Fellowship's an incredible film, I love the journey of the nine characters in the Fellowship. The Two Towers, the three different story lines and the battle of Helm's Deep and then the whole Gollum, Sam and Frodo relationship's really strong. And of course film three is all about the resolution of the story and the climax is the various different climaxes. So I think they all hold different really strong - they've all got their own real kind of strong holds on me, all the different films.

Megan, 14, Loughton
If you could choose anywhere in Middle Earth to live where do you think you would live?

Andy Serkis: That's a really good question. I think Ithilien is really beautiful, I think that's really gorgeous with the forbidden pool and the lush greenery in the forest. I think Ithilien.

Intafah, 14, London
If you could get any one thing from the set of Lord of the Rings what would you take home to keep?

Andy Serkis: I think it would have to be the precious.

Haley, 15, Luton
I'm playing Gollum in my final GCSE production for drama, could you give me any tips?

Andy Serkis: I think that the tip that I would give is that just to remember that what we were talking about earlier that he's not just an evil snivelling monster, that it's important for the audience to be able to connect with him and for an audience to be able to connect with a character they have to some redeemable qualities. So I think just to remember that really. And also to really go through the whole book and look for all the descriptions of how Tolkein describes Gollum's movements.

Elizabeth, 6, Madison USA
What do you think Gollum would do if he actually got the Ring back?

Andy Serkis: That's a good question. I think Gollum would probably want to try and turn back time so he could go back to being Smeagol before he killed his cousin for the Ring.

Joy, 14, London
There's been rumours that Ian McKellen's trying to persuade Peter Jackson to do a TV series of the Hobbit, do you think that's a good idea and would you like to be involved if it got going?

Andy Serkis: Well I'd heard that it wasn't a TV series, that it was going to be another movie but I mean there have been various rumours about it. I'm not sure whether they're all true or not but if it was ever to happen, some time in the future, I would love to be involved with it because Gollum in the Hobbit - there's great scenes in that with the riddles in the dark passages, is one of my favourite - that I remember from being a child - one of my favourite books and that scene really - I remember it very strongly. So I'd love to be involved with it. I'm not sure whether it's going to happen or not but if it ever did, yeah, that would be great.